


Fowl Weather

by Goose_Goddess



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 10:58:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12933795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goose_Goddess/pseuds/Goose_Goddess
Summary: Power out and no heat.From this prompt: http://auideas.tumblr.com/post/168229149112/aac-2k17-december-5thWinter is always a hard time for Character A, so Character B isn’t completely surprised when they get a text from Character A, asking if Character B can come over. Character A supplies the blankets and food; all Character B needs to bring is their own warm body to snuggle.





	Fowl Weather

**Author's Note:**

> Speed write--no beta. Please forgive me!  
> Temps are in F. And I know (now) that birds can actually survive cold weather much better than hot weather, but when we suddenly became owners of a Lovebird, and lost power for a week in the middle of a Michigan winter, I was terrified the poor thing would freeze to death. Luckily for both of us, the house never actually got below 40.

*Help. I need your furry body heat.*

Derek stared at the text, puzzled. He was used to weird text requests from Stiles, but this one seemed stranger than usual. Granted, it was cold outside and he knew Stiles really didn’t like winter. He bundled up enough in the summer, but when the weather got cold, he really went all out. 

*What’s wrong?* He texted back. He was standing in the middle of the grocery store; he’d run out to get batteries . The power had gone out the night before and he found his flashlights were all dead.

*My power’s out. It’s already down to 50 in here and Xena’s going to freeze.*

*Who?*

*I’d cuddle her but she’d probably bite my nose off so that won’t work. And the internet says no propane fire sources.*

Derek stared impatiently at his screen. Not sure how to answer. Then the phone rang, and he clicked answer immediately.

“Scott’s gone to a conference and I’m pet sitting his foster bird. He couldn’t leave her at the office because she gets really cranky if no one’s around to talk to. So I said I’d watch her since I’m home all week finishing up this project. But then the power went out last night and it’s getting too cold in the house for her and I don’t know what to do.” Stiles burst out.

“Hello Stiles.” Derek said. “So you have a cold bird.”

“That’s what I said. They say my power may be out for a few more days and it’s already down to 50 and she’s going to freeze and Scott’s never going to talk to me again. That storm last night took down too many poles and now with the temperature drop it’s getting really awful in here. What if it keeps on like this?”

“Okay,” Derek said slowly, trying to understand. “You said you can’t use a propane heater?”

“No. Apparently birds are really super sensitive to airborne toxins. It’s why they used canaries in mines. If the canary died, they knew to get out. But if Xena dies Scott will never forgive me.”

“All right. Give me an hour. I’m at the store right now, I’ll pick up a few things, swing by my apartment and head over.” 

“Hurry.” Stiles said frantically. 

Derek sighed and hung up the phone. He grabbed a few extra packs of batteries and a flashlight (knowing Stiles, he probably didn’t have one in the apartment.), some hotheads, and a few packs of thumbtacks. Then checked out quickly and headed back to his apartment. He grabbed several blankets, a few empty soup containers and lids from the Chinese restaurant, and was at Stile’s apartment within the promised hour. 

Stiles opened the door and pulled him in. “Thank you for coming over. I’m really not sure what to do. She doesn’t know me very well and I don’t think I can handle her yet. She’s okay if I let her out of the cage to exercise but she doesn’t like being touched and Scott said that I need to give her time to get used to me but how am I going to do that if she freezes to death before I’ve even been watching her for two days?”

When Stiles paused to breathe, Derek handed him blankets. “Pick a room. Preferably a smaller one.”

“A room? For what?” Stiles asked, looking between the blankets and Derek. 

Derek put the soup containers on the table, along with the bag from the grocery store. “We’re going to stay in one room, cover the doors and windows, and it’’ll stay warmer that way. Your stove is gas, right?”

“Yeah, but you can’t use…” Stiles replied.

“I’m not going to heat the room with it, we’re going to heat up some water and make hot water bottles with these. We’ll put them by her cage and they’ll help provide heat.”

Stiles nodded. “Okay. Yeah, that’s a good idea. So… the living room? It has the most windows, but her cage is already in there and it’s not that big.”

Derek nodded. “Perfect.” He pointed at the bag on the table. “I’ll start heating water. There are thumbtacks in there. Check the windows, if they feel cold, hang blankets over them. Cover the doors too. There’s also a lantern in that bag, if we end up covering the windows you’ll need the light.”

“Okay. Got it.” Stiles grabbed the items and headed into the living room. 

Derek started heating water, listening to the noises coming from the living room. He could hear Stiles narrating his every activity. At first, he thought Stiles was talking to him, but then he heard what had to be the bird replying with a “That’s amazing.” 

When the water started steaming, Derek filled two of the soup containers and snapped the lids on. Then grabbed the now hot containers with hot pads and brought them into the living room. A large grey parrot was standing on the top of a cage, supervising Stiles as he hung blankets. She periodically commented “Not like that, Idiot” or “That’s amazing.” 

“She talks very well.” Derek noted.

“Yeah, but we have to be careful. Her previous owner apparently used to swear a lot and Scott’s been working really hard to clean up her language. He wants to be able to place her in a good home, and no one wants a potty mouth bird.”

“Bad bird.” Xena commented. “Bad bad bird. Be a good bird.”

“That’s right. We’ll both be good birds and not say things that Scott doesn’t like.” Stiles grinned at the bird.

“Good bird.” Xena replied, bobbing her head up and down.

“I’m going to put these next to her cage.” Derek said. “I don’t want her to get the lids off, Then we can drape a blanket over the cage and the water bottles to keep the heat in. With that and both of us in here, it should stay above freezing until the heats on.”

“You think so?” Stiles asked, hanging the last blanket. He’d covered all the windows and the door, and turned on the lantern, putting it on the table in the room.

“Yeah, I think we’ll be fine. We’ll order pizza later on. We’ll just sit in here and watch movies on your laptop til the battery goes dead.”

“I’ve got the extra battery charged too, so we should be able to watch a while.” Stiles said. “Let me just put Xena back in her cage and grab the blankets off my bed.”

Derek grinned. “Stiles, it’s only 50 in here. You’re not going to freeze.”

“But it’s gonna get colder, and then I won’t want to move.” Stiles replied. 

“Alright. You put the bird in and I’ll go get the bedding.” Derek headed down the hall.

“Xena, time to go inside.” Stiles said. The bird grumbled what sounded like “don’t wanna” and hunched her shoulders up around her ears.

“Xena.” Stiles said in a stern voice. “It’s time to go inside.”

The bird raised her beak towards the ceiling then said. “I’ll do it because I wanna not because you said.” And walked to the edge of the cage, then lowered herself down the side and climbed inside. She leaned out and pulled the door shut behind here.

“Wow. That’s one talented bird.” Derek said.

Stiles grinned. “Yeah, she can’t actually open or close the door, just pull it in. But she is amazingly smart.” He latched the door and climbed onto the couch, making grabby hands for the blankets. 

Derek smiled, and dumped the bundle on him. Stiles immediately burrowed into the pile, then grabbed his laptop and queued up a movie. He patted the seat next to him, “Come on Sourwolf. Movies.”

Derek lifted the edge of the blanket and sat next to Stiles, who snuggled up next to him. He just hoped that the bird didn’t have quite as much to say about movies as Stiles usually did.


End file.
